Facebook just made Goody Feed its bitch. Here’s how.

Shots were fired; one struck down. Those of us in the field heard it loud and clear. We continue to tread forward cautiously, reading the instruction manual again lest we accidentally violate any laws that will get us struck too.

By field, I meant the publishing industry. And the one struck down is none other than Goody Feed, a Singapore-based viral content site that specialises in annoying clickbait and ridiculous listicles.

To those who are not familiar with Goody Feed, it is essentially a localised BuzzFeed gone wrong. To understand how an average Singaporean thinks about Goody Feed, this Redditor says it best in perfect Singlish, “If Goody Feed was a person, I would have whacked him one time jialat jialat already”, which roughly translates to “If Goody Feed was a person, I would have knocked him out cold in one blow.”

Despite its notorious reputation for irksome journalism, Goody Feed is no small site.

They have a page following of over three hundred thousand on Facebook. How?

Firstly, they churn content at a commendable speed. This is their promise to their fans, written on the cover photo of their Facebook page.

Photo credit: Goody Feed

Secondly, they know how to appeal to the Singaporean audience, even if it is meaningless content.

By writing listicles that pulled at the heartstrings of nostalgia like “9 nostalgic things we all remember about blogging in the early 2000s” or “6 things we all miss about the old Woodlands that only Woodland-ers would understand”, bored bloggers and residents of Woodlands will feel that the article is relatable to them and thus share them on their feeds.

Goody Feed sounds like your uncle that just joined Facebook; annoying, cringeworthy but relatively harmless with no real sales or political agenda.

What heinous deed could they have committed to get struck down, and by whom?

By Facebook, of course.

Yesterday, it was discovered that all posts made on the Goody Feed Facebook page that links to the website have vanished overnight. The only posts left were image posts posted a long time ago. Facebook had removed all posts linking to the website, and blocked the sharing of any Goody Feed articles.

Goody Feed claims to receive six million monthly page views. Given the social nature of the content, it is reasonable to assume that Facebook contributes between 50 to 75 percent of their web traffic at any given time. Having their operations shut down on Facebook is neither a small matter nor a funny PR stunt. This is literally the stuff nightmares are made of for all social media managers.

Goody Feed is not the first and it will not be the last.